The invention generally relates to a system and method for segmenting a series of shipments into loads. In particular, the invention builds optimum loads from multiple requisitions of multiple dates of multiple items which are being transferred from the same origin to the same destination.
The ordering of items such as materials or supplies from external vendors or in the transport of such items from one location to another, the issue of how one builds the shipment to define individual loads that can be transported poses a problem that has not been adequately solved in existing commercial software systems. Previously, existing programs for load building to be delivered by truck, ship container, railcar, truck or other means (herein generally referred to as truck builds) have not been adapted to work efficiently with Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system's Material Requirements Planning (MRP) processes such as distributed by SAP Corporation (Systems, Applications and Products Corporation). This has resulted in lost opportunities or extensive manual efforts. The long-standing need of tools for optimizing truck builds within ERP systems is addressed by this invention.
To illustrate the need for optimizing truck builds, consider the case of ordering supplies to keep a mill operation running. For example, if there are 16 different raw materials needed, one could order a 30-day supply for each of the 16 materials and have 16 trucks each deliver a 30-day supply of one raw material to the mill. Alternatively, one could order a daily truck filled with one day's supply of all 16 materials, requiring 30 truck deliveries. The former solution requires a 30-day inventory of materials delivered by 16 trucks, with added labor to move nearly all of the materials in and out of storage, while the latter solution approaches a “just-in-time” scenario in which one truck makes 30 deliveries of the materials, each for one day's production, delivered shortly before they are used.